Vancouver City Councillor

Latest news from the increasingly upside-down world of United Kingdom housing debates: developers condemn the Conservative government for proposing to eliminate affordable housing requirements, declaring it a threat to London’s “social mix.”

The developers stand to gain hundreds of millions of pounds in windfall profits if the policy stands, but have demanded that the policy be scrapped because it poses a fatal threat to the diversity of housing London requires.

Denounced as “insane” by Tory critics, the Tory initiative is on the heels of a major London march for action on housing that saw thousands demand major national investments in new, affordable homes.

Also prominent: widespread anger about countless empty mansions, apparently owned by foreign investors, that sit crumbling while tenants and low income tenants struggle to find homes.

Sound familiar? All issues we debate here, but so far without the popular mobilization and, in particular, the direct debate at the federal level, where solutions can actually be found.

Geoff Meggs was elected to City Council in November 2008 on the Vision Vancouver team led by Gregor Robertson. He lives with his wife, Jan O’Brien in a False Creek town house. They have two adult daughters. READ MORE